Mission WM5: Boundary Behavior of Waves

Mission WM5 includes questions that target your understanding of and ability to analyze the behavior of a wave that reaches the end of a medium . The mission consists of 40 questions organized into 10 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to predict how alterations in the medium through which a wave is traveling will effect the properties of that wave.
• The student should be able to predict the orientation of the reflected pulse at the boundary between two media.

 

Launch Mission WM5

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:

The Physics Classroom, Waves Unit, Lesson 3, Part a
 

• How can an incident pulse, transmitted pulse, and reflected pulse be distinguished from each other?
• When a pulse crosses a boundary into a different medium, how does the speed of a transmitted pulse compare to the speed of an incident pulse?
• When a pulse crosses a boundary into a different medium, how does the wavelength of a transmitted pulse compare to the wavelength of an incident pulse?
• When a pulse crosses a boundary into a different medium, how does the frequency of a transmitted pulse compare to the frequency of an incident pulse?
• Under what conditions will a reflected pulse (or wave) be inverted?

 

Video Tutorials:

Boundary Behavior of Waves

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: